Free AI Note Taker for Google Meet: A No-Bot Setup Guide

You can use AI Meeting Companion alongside Google Meet to capture a transcript and generate a summary, decisions and action items without adding a bot to the participant list. Before an important meeting, check that your browser transcribes every speaker you need to hear: granting microphone access or sharing a tab does not guarantee that both sides of a call are captured.

What the free plan includes

The free plan includes up to 600 transcription minutes per month and up to 45 minutes of active recording per meeting. There is also a separate limit of 15 meetings per month. Minutes reset monthly and unused minutes do not carry over. See plans and limits if you need more capacity.

Before you start: permissions and consent

Obtain the consent required by applicable law and your organization's policies before recording or transcribing. Having no visible bot does not remove those obligations. A brief announcement is not a substitute for consent where consent is required.

Open Google Meet and AI Meeting Companion, sign in, and run a short test with another person. Use a working microphone and a stable connection. Speech recognition depends on the browser and may not be available.

Step by step: taking notes during Google Meet

1. Open Record Meeting in AI Meeting Companion. If a recovery transcript is waiting, choose Recover it or Discard before starting another recording.
2. Select Start recording and allow microphone access. If the browser displays a screen or tab sharing picker, select the Google Meet tab and enable sharing audio if offered. This request is optional and may not appear on every device.
3. Check the transcript for both sides. Ask the other person to say a sentence, then say one yourself. If only your voice appears, do not assume remote contributions are being saved. Sharing audio does not guarantee that the browser's speech recognition transcribes it.
4. Keep the recording page open and visible. Avoid locking your phone or switching apps during an important recording. Watch the transcript and usage warnings.
5. Select Stop. The app attempts to save the transcript as meeting notes and open that meeting's workspace. Generate the summary, decisions and action items there afterward; review the result before sharing.

The Chrome extension can open the app alongside Google Meet. It is an app launcher, not a separate meeting recorder, and does not guarantee call-audio capture.

Browser and device limitations

• Microphone versus remote voices: microphone access does not guarantee that other participants are audible, particularly when you wear headphones. A transcript test is essential.
• Audio sharing: tab and audio-sharing options vary by browser, operating system and permissions. The app requests this access when available, but does not combine that audio into the microphone recording. Do not rely on it as a guaranteed complete Google Meet audio file.
• Speech recognition: if unavailable, the app displays a warning. You can take manual notes instead of depending on live transcription.
• iPhone and background pages: the app requests a screen wake lock when supported. Safari or the operating system can still suspend it; installing it to your home screen does not guarantee recording while the phone is locked.

Example summary and action items

This is a fictional illustration, not output from a real customer meeting or a guarantee of accuracy.

Notes: “Ana will send the draft on Tuesday. Luis will review the budget on Thursday. We agreed to postpone the launch until testing is complete.”

• Summary: The team reviewed launch readiness and upcoming deliverables.
• Decision: Postpone the launch until testing is complete.
• Ana's task: Send the draft on Tuesday.
• Luis's task: Review the budget on Thursday.

Check names, dates and commitments. AI can make mistakes or infer details that were not confirmed. Use a meeting summary template for a consistent format.

Saving, recovery and usage limits

While recording, the app attempts to save a transcript draft approximately every five seconds and when the page goes into the background. This saves text in this browser, not a continuous backup of audio. Blocked storage, an empty transcript or browser suspension can prevent saving.

When you reopen Record Meeting, you can recover a valid draft up to 24 hours old. Recovery saves the available notes; it does not recover audio or words that were never transcribed. Do not clear your browser data before recovering the text.

The app shows approaching-limit warnings and attempts to stop and save at the per-meeting recording cap or when monthly minutes run out. Connection problems or the separate meeting-count limit can prevent saving. Check that the meeting and its notes appear after you stop.

What about Google's notes and other alternatives?

According to Google Meet's documentation, “Take notes for me” requires an eligible Google Workspace edition or Google AI plan. Host and administrator controls can affect its use.

AI Meeting Companion is not the only no-bot option. Otter's Google Meet instructions include manual recording on your device, and Tactiq offers no-bot transcription and says it does not record audio. Compare specific capture methods, limits and data handling rather than assuming all alternatives work the same way. Sources checked October 17, 2026.

Start with a short test

Read the Google Meet, Zoom and Teams walkthrough, test the audio with another person, and review your first transcript before relying on it in an important meeting.

Start free: up to 600 transcription minutes/month and 45 minutes of active recording per meeting →